How-to:

iTunes gift cards are one of the most popular gifts each holiday season. They are a great way to buy music, TV shows, movies, and apps. If you just got one there is a quick and easy way to redeem your value so you can start enjoying all the iTunes Store has to offer.

1. Scratch off the label on the back of the gift card
2. Open the iTunes app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch
3. Hit ‘Redeem iTunes Gift Cards’
4. Sign into the iTunes Store using your Apple ID password
5. Choose ‘Use Camera’ (You can also choose ‘You can also enter your code manually’)
6. Make sure your code is visible to the camera
7. The balance of the gift card should be available to you immediately
8. PROFIT!!!

Of course you can still redeem your gift card the old fashioned way, via iTunes on your Mac or PC. Whichever way you decide, let us know what you will be purchasing from iTunes in the comments and on Twitter! Read the rest of this entry »

Spotlight has always been a quick and easy way to search for hundreds of apps, contacts, and messages on your iOS device. Prior to iOS 7, a swipe left from your main home screen would bring you to the search box. There you could type in any word and a list of files from your device would appear. This was a problem when you were on your third or forth page of apps, however. Apple has now made this feature a lot more convenient in iOS 7. Read the rest of this entry »

For far too long there has been no way to see when your texts or iMessages were sent or received on iOS. When a conversation was initiated with a contact, a small timestamp appeared, giving the rest of the conversation a rough time frame. After that initial text there was no way to see the time elapsed between messages. Surely this could be achieved, considering basic phones of yesteryear have been doing it for years. Now, new in iOS 7, Apple allows you to see timestamps on all messages quickly and easily.

All you have to do is open the Messages app, go into a conversation, and swipe anywhere on the screen from right to left. Doing so allows all of your timestamps to show up. As soon as you release the swipe gesture they disappear once again. This feature is certainly overdue, but appreciated nonetheless.

Have you figured out any more iOS 7 tricks since its release? Let us know in the comments!

Apple announced the iPhone 5s and 5c last week. Tomorrow both will finally go on sale. This is the first year in a while where Apple’s flagship phone, the 5s, hasn’t been available for preorder. This is supposedly due to supply constraints. That means if you want to get an iPhone anytime soon you have two choices: Read the rest of this entry »

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It’s that time of year again. Kids are going back to school, days are getting shorter, and the temperature is slowly dropping. What are you to do now? That’s easy! Get ready to watch all the great TV you can over the next 9 months. The only problem is that Cable is expensive. Woefully so. It can be tough to justify spending close to $200 a month when you only watch a handful of channels. Here are some workarounds to save some money while still enjoying your favorite shows. Read the rest of this entry »